By the end of ch. 20 the Lord had come back as the Spirit, as the pneumatic Christ, to be with the disciples as everything to them. Therefore, this Gospel might be considered closed there (John 20:30-31). But how could the disciples make a living? What should they do to carry out His commission? How should they follow Him after His resurrection? What would be their future? This additional chapter is needed that these problems might be dealt with.

This proves that His coming to the disciples in John 20:26 was actually a manifestation, for here it is said that He manifested Himself again to the disciples. He was again training them to practice His invisible presence. It was a matter not of His coming but of His manifestation. Whether or not they were conscious of His presence, He was with them all the time. Because of their weakness He sometimes manifested His presence in order to strengthen their faith in Him.

I.e., Twin.

It must have been because of the trial related to their need to make a living that Peter returned to his old occupation, thus backsliding from the Lord's call (Matt. 4:19-20; Luke 5:3-11).

Peter and the sons of Zebedee (John and James) were professional fishermen, the Sea of Tiberias was large and full of fish, and night was the right time for fishing; still, through the entire night they caught nothing. This was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from their net.

Fish is not in the Greek text; however, because the Greek word here refers to something prepared for eating, fish is implied.

When the disciples were in the right position, as in Luke 24:41-43, they had — even in the house — more fish than they needed, so they offered a piece to the Lord. But here they were in a backslidden condition; thus, after fishing the whole night, they had — even on the sea — no fish, not even one piece!

Morning (v. 4) was not the right time for fishing, but when they obeyed the Lord's word and cast the net, they caught an abundance of fish. This surely was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade the fish to come into their net.

In Luke 5:3-11 the Lord called Peter by a miracle in fishing. Here He recovered him to His call by another miracle in fishing. He is consistent in His purpose.

Or, had on his undergarment only.

I.e., a little over one hundred yards.

Here the Lord trained Peter to have faith in Him for his living. Peter and those with him had fished the entire night but had caught nothing. Then, according to the Lord's word they cast the net, and they caught an abundance of fish. But without these fish, and even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord prepared fish and even bread for the disciples. This too was a miracle! By this the Lord trained them to realize that without His leading, even if they should go to the sea, where the fish were, at night, the right time for fishing, they would catch nothing; but if they followed the Lord's leading, even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord could provide fish for them. Though they caught many fish according to the Lord's word, the Lord would not use these fish to feed them. This was a real lesson to Peter. For his living he needed to believe in the Lord, who calls things not being as being (Rom. 4:17).

This indicates the Lord's gracious care for the need of His called ones.

In the Lord's provision, bread represents the riches of the land, and fish represent the riches of the sea.

Here the Lord was restoring Peter's love toward Him. Peter did have a heart to love the Lord, but he was too confident in his own strength, his natural strength. His love for the Lord was precious, but his natural strength had to be denied and dealt with. The Lord allowed Peter to fail utterly in denying the Lord to His face three times (John 18:17, 25, 27), so that his natural strength and his self-confidence could be dealt with. Furthermore, Peter had just taken the lead to backslide from the Lord's call. His natural confidence in his love toward the Lord also must have been dealt with by this failure; yet he might have been somewhat disappointed. The Lord therefore came to restore his love toward Him, to charge him with the shepherding of His church, and to prepare him for his martyrdom so that he would not follow Him with any confidence in his natural strength.

The Greek word refers to a higher and nobler love. So for the first love in v. 16.

The Greek word denotes an intimate love. So for the second love in v. 16, and for all occurrences of love in v. 17.

The fruit-bearing in ch. 15 is the outflow of the riches of the inner life. Here, to feed the lambs is to nourish them with the riches of the inner life. To feed others, we need to enjoy the riches of the Lord's divine life. This requires that we love Him. To believe in the Lord is to receive Him; to love the Lord is to enjoy Him. The Lord came as life and the life supply to us. We need to have faith in Him and love toward Him. This Gospel presents these as the two requirements for us to participate in the Lord.

Lit., little lambs.

Shepherding is for the flock (John 10:14, 16), which is the church (Acts 20:28); hence, it is related to God's building (Matt. 16:18). Later, Peter in his first Epistle indicated this, saying that growth by feeding on the pure milk of the word is for the building of God's house (1 Pet. 2:2-5) and charging the elders to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:1-4).

Some MSS have, little sheep. So in v. 17.

Perhaps in questioning Peter three times, the Lord was reminding Peter of how he had denied Him three times.

The first know in this verse refers to the inward, subjective consciousness; the second refers to the outward, objective knowledge. See note John 8:55¹.

This may refer to his going fishing in v. 3.

Later, Peter referred to this (2 Pet. 1:14). What the Lord wanted here was to prepare Peter to follow Him unto death, not by anything of himself or according to his own will.

The Lord was there with the disciples. How then could He say "until I come"? Since He was there, He did not need to come. If He meant that He would leave them and later come back to them, how could He say to them, "Follow Me"? How could they follow Him? The answer to all these questions is related to His invisible presence. In His visible presence He would leave and come back later. But in His invisible presence He would be with them all the time. On one hand, He would be with them, and on the other hand, He would be away from them. So, on one hand, they could follow Him, and on the other hand, they would have to wait for His coming back.

After His resurrection the Lord remained with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3-4) in order to train them to realize, practice, and live by His invisible presence. In v. 23 the Lord indicated that some of His believers would follow Him unto death, and that some would remain, i.e., live until He comes.

The span of what is covered in the last two chapters of this Gospel is broad. It begins with the discovery of the Lord's resurrection and ends with His coming back. Between these two events are all the matters related to the Christian life during the church age: seeking the Lord with love toward Him; seeing the Lord in resurrection; receiving the revelation of the issue of the Lord's resurrection — that His Father is our Father and we are His brothers — by experiencing His manifestation; meeting with the believers to enjoy the Lord's presence; having the Lord breathe the Holy Spirit into us, and being sent by the Lord with His commission and authority to represent Him; learning how to live by faith in the Lord and trust in Him for our daily living; loving the Lord, the natural strength having been dealt with; shepherding the flock for the building of the church; practicing the Lord's invisible presence, with some following the Lord even unto death to glorify God, not by self-will but according to His leading, and some living until He comes back.

This verse, together with John 20:30-31, affirms that this Gospel is the record of selected things that serve the purpose of testifying to the matter of life and building.

In note Matt. 28:20^2c, para. 2, it is pointed out that the Lord's ascension is not mentioned in John or Matthew. The reason it is not mentioned is that today, after His resurrection, the Lord is still on the earth to be with His believers, and He will be with them until the end of this age, when He will be manifested in His visible glory (1 Pet. 1:7; 2 Thes. 1:7), that is, when He will come back to the earth in His visible presence (Matt. 16:27) to establish His visible kingdom. The Gospel of Matthew unveils and testifies that today, after His resurrection, the Lord, who is the spiritual King of the invisible kingdom of the heavens, is still on the earth in His Spirit of resurrection to be with the people of the kingdom of the heavens in His invisible presence; hence, Matthew does not mention His leaving the earth to ascend to the heavens. The Gospel of John reveals and testifies that as the Triune God, the Lord became flesh (John 1:14) to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and, after accomplishing His redemptive death for man, was transfigured in resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) and to enter into those who believe into Him to be their life for eternity, never to be separated from them; hence, it would have been inappropriate for John to mention His going away in ascension.

Furthermore, the four Gospels are a full revelation of how the Triune God came to complete Christ, that is, to make Christ complete. The record in the Gospel of John is crucial regarding this matter. It shows us that the completing of Christ, who was anointed and commissioned by God to accomplish God's eternal will, was carried out by the Triune God becoming flesh in order to be united with man. First, through His death in the flesh He accomplished redemption for man, and then through resurrection He was transfigured to become the Spirit that He might enter into the believers (John 20:22) to be united with them, that they might be united with the Triune God (John 17:21). Thus He became Christ, the embodiment of God, and is able to take away men's sins and enter into men to be their life that they may become the sons of God to be His members, constituting His Body as the full expression of the Triune God. Thus, He is in them to be all their reality and to be with them invisibly until their bodies are redeemed and transfigured that they may enter into His visible presence to be completely united with Him and completely like Him, and to become the New Jerusalem, which is about to be completed, as the mutual habitation of the Triune God and His redeemed people for eternity!